way in which this infrastructure we've created has sort of, you know, built itself up on our cities and on our coasts and, you know, brought me right back to square one in terms of piquing my curiosity about how all these systems fit together. not just the internet, but power and aviation and all these large, incredibly complicated things that we depend on so much. >> host: "tubes" is the name of the book, "a journey to the center of the internet," and andrew blum is the author. this is "the communicators" on c-span. >> with a month left in 2012, many publications are putting together their year-end lists of notable books. booktv will feature several of these lists focusing on nonfiction selections. these nonfiction titles were included in the los angeles public library's best of 2012. salman rushdie recounts his years in hiding following a fatwa issued in 1989 for mr. rushdie's authorship of the novel, "the satanic verses." in "roger williams and the creation of the american soul: church, state and the birth of liberty," john barry recounts the life of the theologian and his though